The ongoing first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia gave the audience one of the best fielding moments as David Warner took an excellent diving catch and showed amazing match awareness on the first day.
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne was anchoring the innings as the wickets continued to fall on the other, with his opening partner Pathum Nissanka (23) and Kusal Mendis (3) being dismissed cheaply.
The incident happened on the 2nd ball of the 30th over, as Nathan Lyon’s delivery took an inside edge of Karunaratne as he defended forward and hit the pad and ricocheted towards the off side. As the bowler and other close-in fielders were busy in appealing for the LBW, Warner, stationed at first slip, showed great match awareness.
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He made a gigantic dive to catch the ball instead and appealed for the catch. As the umpires checked for the dismissal, it was revealed the ball had impacted the bat before the pad, and Karunaratne was adjudged out.
Here is David Warner’s amazing catch and awareness:
Meanwhile, apart from the skipper, Niroshan Dickwella made 58 runs, but Sri Lanka managed to make 212 runs in their first innings. Nathan Lyon picked 5/90, while Mitchell Swepson took 3/55 for Australia.
The series is being played for the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy named after the two top bowlers in Test history with 1,508 combined wickets in the format. However, this is the first time the series is being played after Australian great Shane Warne died in March from a heart attack.
